Where's Donald?

Where is Donald Rumsfeld? Between March and June, he seemed to be on TV almost everyday. Since March 2003, he almost certainly was the most visible cabinet official. But over the past few weeks, something strange has occured. Rumsfeld has been missing in action, harder to find than Waldo.

Now, it would be easy to chalk this up to being overworked. However, the more interesting possibility would be that Karl Rove and Co. have pushed him under the desk for the campaign due to issues related to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

Low and behold...

In mid-August, the commission that [James] Schlesinger chairs—handpicked by Rumsfeld from members of his own Defense Policy Board—is expected to issue its final report on abuses by U.S. interrogators stemming from the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal. NEWSWEEK has learned the Schlesinger panel is leaning toward the view that failures of command and control at the Pentagon helped create the climate in which the abuses occurred.

The four-member commission's report is still being drafted and its final conclusions are not yet definite. But there is strong sentiment to assign some responsibility up the line to senior civilian officials at the Pentagon, including Rumsfeld, several sources close to the discussions say.

Update: Apparently, I am not the only one asking this question.

Rummy had all but vanished in the past six weeks or so. All those Pentagon news conferences and Sunday morning shows were suddenly Rummy-less. Somebody was clamming him up, or jamming him -- or worse.

Could be the Abu Ghraib business. After a couple of days digging around, I discovered in the current issue of Newsweek a story that speculates that Rummy's own special committee to investigate how nice American boys and girls turned into a Junior Gestapo might actually finger Rummy himself.